. The gateway to the Sahara; observations and experiences in Tripoli. o the south, six to eleven months asthe camel journeys, south where the caravansend their long voyages and the Great Desertmeets the forests, is the land of the Hausas, thatgreat organized Black Empire. There, in thetown of Meradi Katsena, Salam was born. Histown was like thousands of others which liescattered over the width and breadth of theCentral Sudan, their mud walls and thatchedroofs baking under the tropical sun of Hausa-land. Though short in stature, the Hausas, figura-tively speaking, are mentally head and shoulder
. The gateway to the Sahara; observations and experiences in Tripoli. o the south, six to eleven months asthe camel journeys, south where the caravansend their long voyages and the Great Desertmeets the forests, is the land of the Hausas, thatgreat organized Black Empire. There, in thetown of Meradi Katsena, Salam was born. Histown was like thousands of others which liescattered over the width and breadth of theCentral Sudan, their mud walls and thatchedroofs baking under the tropical sun of Hausa-land. Though short in stature, the Hausas, figura-tively speaking, are mentally head and shouldersabove any of the numerous Black tribes ofAfrica. They have a written language resem-bling Arabic and the traveller through the Sudanwho speaks Hausa can be understood almosteverywhere. Despite the fact that the Hausas are a com-merce-loving people, slavery from time immemo-rial has been a national curse. For centuries thenoiseless tread of laden slaves has worn deep-rutted paths below the forest level, packing themhard as adamant and weaving an intricate sys- [54]. Salam, the Hausa Equipped with a spear and a .shield of rhinoceros hide SALAM, A HAUSA SLAVE tern of narrow highways through the jungles ofHausaland. Incomprehensible as it may seem,it is nevertheless a fact that only a few years agoat least one out of every three hundred persons inthe world was a Hausa-speaking slave.* Notwithstanding horrible atrocities committedby slave-holders, slaves have always had certainrights of their own. Sometimes their conditionis better than before captivity, and it is not unusualfor head slaves to be slave-owners themselves andto be placed in positions of high trust. Onenoted instance is that of Rabbah, an ex-slave ofZubehr Pasha, who by direction of the Mahdibecame governor of the great eastern Hausastate of Darfur. The slave traflSc, based as it is on a tribute-paying system, has had a most demoralizingeffect, and until the recent extension of theBritish sphere of influence permanent
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